Section 508, documentation and the US software market
Since June 2001, legislation ('Section 508') in the United States requires that all IT products that are sold to US government agencies are accessible to people with disabilities. This legislation applies to all federal departments and agencies, including the US Postal Services.
Its primary purpose is to provide access to Federal executive agencies' electronic and information technology (EIT) by individuals with disabilities.
Contractors who are interested in selling EIT to the Federal government are responsible for designing and manufacturing products which meet the applicable technical provisions.
Currently, there is no requirement to conform to Section 508 if you are selling software to non-government bodies. There is no guarantee that this will not change. Since many of the technical standards are simply based on good practice, it makes sense to follow the requirements whether or not you intend to sell to US government agencies.
How Section 508 affects software documentation
The legislation affects documentation in two ways:
- The documentation must describe the accessibility features of the software.
- The documentation itself must be accessible. This is discussed in the remainder of this article.
What is 'accessible' documentation?
What does 'accessible' mean, within the context of software and documentation? Broadly, it means providing access to people with various disabilities, such as blindness or partial sight, deafness, use of only one hand and so on.
Support can be provided for things such as:
- High-contrast viewing
- The ability to zoom in and re-flow text on the screen
- Assistive technology such as screen readers
How to achieve accessible documentation
These are just some of the ways in which documentation can be made accessible. For some help formats, it may not be possible to adhere to the guidelines that are listed here:
| Principle | Example |
|---|---|
| Provide equivalent alternatives to auditory and visual content. | In HTML, use ALT text with images. This allows a screen reader to tell the user what the image is about. |
| Use markup and style sheets rather than directly formatting items of text. | In a Word document, do not use tab characters to align columns. Use Word's Column option. This allows a screen reader to output the text correctly. |
| Ensure that users can control time-sensitive content changes. | In a Flash demonstration, give users the option of preventing automatic transitions. |
| Ensure that documents are clear and simple. Use a logical reading order. | Do not write:
|
| Ensure that the text is unambiguous. | If you are describing a process, do not write, "The file is saved when the dialogue box is closed." It could be interpreted as either of these:
|
| Design for device-independence. | In HTML, avoid browser-specific enhancements. |
| Provide clear navigation mechanisms. | On a web site, use a navigation bar to indicate the current page within the web site. |
| Do not rely on colour alone to give meaning. | Do not write, "Press the green button to start":
|
Resources
www.section508.gov This site is all about Section 508.
www.access-board.gov/508.htm This site contains links to sites that are relevant to Section 508.
www.ittatc.org ITTATC promotes the development of accessible electronic and information technology by providing technical assistance, training, and information. (Funding ceased in May 2005, and this site is no longer being updated.)
www.adobe.com/accessibility/ The Adobe accessibility web pages help content creators to produce accessible content.
http://webxact.watchfire.com/ WebXACT is a free online service that allows you to test single web pages for quality, accessibility, and privacy issues. Originally, this was the 'Bobby' tool from CAST (www.cast.org).
www.w3.org/TR/WCAG10/ The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) develops specifications, guidelines, software, and tools for the web. This part of the W3C site contains the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 1.0.
www-306.ibm.com/able/guidelines/documentation/accessdoc.html IBM's documentation accessibility guidelines.
http://validator.w3.org The free Markup Validation Service checks HTML documents (web pages) for conformance to W3C standards. Conformance to the standards does not guarantee that a web site will be accessible, but it helps.
www.abilitynet.org.uk Ability Net is a UK charity that provides IT expertise related to computing and disabilities.
www.drc-gb.org Disability Rights Commission (DRC) is an independent body, established by Act of Parliament to eliminate discrimination against disabled people and to promote equality of opportunity. The web site contains information on web accessibility issues.
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